Path to radiance
by satter
Summary: The Child of Destiny was raised and molded in Kirigakure no Sato. Will he will bring the sun to the land of blood and bones?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Shuriken sparked against thrown shuriken as shadows raced through a forest of trees. Gouts of flame were spat forth by one, searing through the air in an attempt to burn the other shadowy combatant. The hitai-ate with clouds glinted in the muted light as ninja replaced himself with a log evading the roiling flames. He threw six shuriken at his opponent in rapid succession and at different speeds. Two of his own shuriken collided in the air and ricocheting slightly, they moved along diverging paths as a third shot between them. The change in trajectories allowed the spread of shuriken to evade the ones sent to intercept them as they headed for their target, Uzumaki Naruto.

Only the boy was no longer where he had been standing. A simple _bunshin_ combined with a short range _shunshin_ created an afterimage that vanished as the thrown projectiles sailed through where he had been. Naruto raced up to enemy from outside of the man's peripheral vision. He seemed to disappear from one place only to reappear in another, ready to attack. Kumo shinobi struggled to parry Naruto's first blow, aimed at his temple. He was barely able to dodge a kick and took another hit in his short ribs that left him gasping. Next moment the blond boy in a burst of chakra closed the distance and struck with kunai into his throat. Wind chakra enhanced kunai almost decapitated Kumo shinobi and his body fell to the ground.

In the same time another Kumo ninja rose from the earth in silence, he blurred through handseals releasing _Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu_ into the canopy of a tree. Only Naruto already wasn't there anymore.

Kumogakure shinobi was forced to draw upon the remaining fire chakra left over from his last technique to perform a sealless _Katon: Hiendan_ that incinerated the wind chakra enhanced kunai that flew toward his face. He threw one kunai toward boy's hiding place as he dodged the hot metallic ashes that came from the destroyed kunai.

The boy jumped from the tree and somehow completed the handseals for an earth release technique in mid air while upside-down. When his hands hit the ground from his flip, Kumo ninja was forced to jump away from his position as earth rose on either side of him, forming a fanged mouth. It slammed shut with a thud that shook the ground slightly. He answered with a lightning jutsu that leaped at Naruto from the man's index and ring fingers which continued to spark lightly for seconds afterward. It was easy to avoid but the low level Ration jutsu would have dulled boy's movements had it hit, perhaps even immobilized him. Naruto replaced himself with the boulder and while being hidden by the tree did a Rat handseal. Immediately, the surrounding area was covered in a thick frost in which he camouflaged himself.

_Shimogakure no Jutsu,_ flashed in Kumo shinobi's mind as he recognized the support jutsu for silent killing technique that was developed by one of the strongest Kiri jounin, Chūkichi. It was bastardized version of elemental manipulation of kekkei genkai Yuki clan.

He didn't sense the transparent figure behind as it stuck kunai into his head.

"Welcome to the Bloody Mist." Naruto breathed as his lips morphed into predatory smile. He glanced at the position of the sun in the sky. "Hmm... Guess, I'll return home during the night."

XXX

Kirigakure no Sato always smells of the sea; the bitter icy scent invading every lung and breath. It rises from the ground and settles in every shadow. There are storms and winds and vengeful days of tempest and days of miles and miles of silver bright oceans. And for many decades there have been Kiri shinobi venturing deep into the mainland, always knowing they are not home when earth and sky are clear and green and blue and not right. And they know only the death live in Kirigakure no Sato.

One of these shinobi was twelve years old Uzumaki Naruto.

Raindrops ran through his hair, soaked through his clothes, and ran like tears down his whiskered cheeks. Flowers lay at the grave stone before his feet, hanging limply as water flowed around petals and marble.

This grave stone was completely normal, no different to thousands of others, but for young Naruto it was very special. For in this grave under the stone was buried his late mother, Uzumaki Kushina, who defected from Konohagakure no Sato on the day her son was born. She left the sunny village and came into dark and cold Water Country to save her newborn son from the fate of being jinchuuriki. Naruto was eight years old when his mother died of injures received during his birth and extraction of the bijuu and sometimes he hated the world and cruel fate that gave them so little time together. Sometimes he was happy that fate gave them time at all.

His eyes hung heavy from lack of sleep but nevertheless preferred the rainy night to another restless in bed.

Naruto occasionally wondered what would happened if his mother didn't run away from Konoha and Kyuubi was sealed in him and not merely defeated by Yondaime. Would he became a hero, a protector, an ultimate shinobi praised by Konohagakure or would Konoha people scorned him? From what he heard, when three years after his birth, Kyuubi reemerged and was caught and sealed before it can cause any damage, Konoha citizens started to hail as greatest hero their young jinchuuriki, Sarutobi Konohamaru, who was Sandaime Hokage's grandchild.

Drenched by the rain, his clothing began to sag on him like training weights. He stepped away from the grave stone, away from the name that used to breathe with life.

Naruto didn't leave, just stood with his eyes closed, letting the water beat upon his head. He would eventually have to drag his body to bed, wake up, and rush to another mission for only in battle he felt alive.

"What do you want, sensei?" Naruto's voice echoed through the raindrops.

A golden haired boy thought that Chūkichi-senseiwould have learned by now that their chakra sensory abilities were on the same level. He didn't even need to concentrate to know there was a shadow watching him.

A relatively large man with three distinct, broad, blue striped markings on his face and a pair of small red glasses, flickered beside him. Chūkichi smiled when he heard the voice of his only apprentice. The kid was talented and ruthless as the best Kirigakure ninja could be and it was a god's blessing that the boy was sneaky bastard when he wanted to be. Otherwise, he wouldn't have survived being shinobi of the Bloody Mist.

"You have a mission."

"I just returned from one." Naruto paused, "And it's middle of the night." He said, the night ached and called him to a bed.

Chūkichi kept silence for a moment then said. "Ao have a mission for you."

Naruto shook his head and slipped into _shunshin_, rushing to the building that served as Hunter-nin Department Headquarter. The rain evaporated before it touched his skin.

"What do you want of me, old man?" Naruto demanded.

Ao, the Head of Hunter Ninja, rubbed his temples with a huge sigh as he observed Naruto who burst into his office and was dripping water on the carpet.

"Why, in the old days..." Ao started to scold the golden haired boy only to stop seeing how unimpressed he was. "You have a mission, brat." He threw him a scroll that Naruto caught, but didn't open.

Uzumaki shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant expression, "I wouldn't came here otherwise."

A hunter-nin mask was placed upon the desk.

"We have received information about Momochi Zabuza." Ao said in an exhausted voice.

"So... a mission?" Naruto questioned, looking at the mask quizzically, it wasn't the one that he painted himself.

"I wouldn't send a little genin like you to be butchered by the Demon of Mist. No, you will just confirm his whereabout and trail him until I send a squad to take him out." Ao picked up the hunter-nin mask and held it aloft, "Apparently, one of Zabuza's companions have the mask painted like this, don't mistake him with the real hunter-nin."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "So you want me just to confirm this info you received and wait for a team. This is lame. Wouldn't it be better if you send a squad of ninja with me to kill Zabuza?"

Ao raised an eyebrow but did not reply for a second. Damn, kid was right, of course, but he couldn't tell him the real reason for sending him away of Water Country. "No genin should question their orders, Uzumaki. Actually, even full-fledged hunter-nins don't question my orders. You will leave Kirigakure tomorrow morning. Dismissed."

When Naruto has left, Ao turned to greet the man that entered his office through the hidden door. "You owe me for this, Chūkichi." He said to the man in the shadows.

"And you know as I do that Kirigakure couldn't afford to lose a promising ninja like Naruto." Chūkichi stepped closer to the Head of Hunter-nin Department, "Did you confirmed it?"

"Yes. Someone is indeed controlling Yagura. We have no choice, but to side with kekkei genkai rebels and Terumi-san for the good of Kirigakure."

"I'll pray that this coup will be more effective then Zabuza's."

XXX

Naruto walked the street towards his apartment, a rare sight to see a ninja walking, but he enjoyed the quiet streets and the moon lazily watching from above. It stopped raining while he was briefed by Ao. He had thoughts to sort but he found them too much of a jumbled mess to organize properly. As he walked, the quiet clean street turned into ominous pathways of dirt. The Kirigakure no Sato gradually twisted and deformed into the darker areas. Cheap apartment complexes and rowdy bars lined the streets. Naruto stepped nonchalantly to the side as a man was thrown out of a second-story window.

There where whores on the street corner, shady characters selling drugs, thieves pawning stolen items, and gangs stalking their territory. It was the part of Kirigakure that went ignored by the Mizukage. After all, this was a ninja village and ninja needed some kind of escape from their harsh lives.

This was home to Uzumaki Naruto. His apartment building has been in the center of this illegal wasteland since the death of his mother.

Standing on the corner of the street right next to his apartment was Hikari. She had come from a ninja family but her parents died on a mission a long time ago, leaving her an orphan and struggling to survive the orphanage system until she fled from it.

Hikari leaned against the building wall. Short skirt, low shirt and high heels were covered by the raincoat. "Where have you been?" She asked, a cigarette between crimson lips.

"Mission," Naruto replied. A pause occurred in the conversation and smoke filled the air. This was the part where Hikari should have offered her services but it hasn't worked in past and it wouldn't work now.

"One of your ninja buddies was snooping around here."

"Oh, do you know –"

"The white haired bitch," Hikari interrupted. "You fucking her?"

Naruto blushed and Hikari snickered, "Geez, just asking. You are such a baby." Hikari could tell a lot by just looking at boy, and it was so easy to get the one standing before her completely red in the face. With a drag of the cigarette and a snake of smoke she added, "She seemed pretty worried."

Naruto knew Hikari like to tease him, but he never got used to it. After he recovered from the embarrassed flush, he suddenly felt guilty. Yuuki was a girl they graduated Academy together and who had a crush on him. There was a mission when her team was killed and she captured, it was a sheer luck that he and sensei were in the same area and saved her. Since that time her love only deepened, but twelve years old Uzumaki wasn't sure what he should do about it.

"Thanks," Naruto gave her a smile but she didn't buy it. She took one look at his ANBU attire and the bags under the eyes. He couldn't fool her.

He made his way up the stairs and coins rang on the concrete, falling at Hikari's feet. Her eyes burned afire, "I told you Uzumaki, I don't want your fucking money!" She yelled up the stairs. "Don't you fucking pity me!"

Naruto was used to the yelling as he unlocked his door, undid the traps and seals, and went inside. Hikari stopped her curses when the door closed. She looked at the money at her feet. It wasn't much but was better then nothing. She picked it up. No point in wasting it.

Hikari knew she could just pick another corner, but she kept coming back.

Everyone knew Uzumaki Naruto was probably the only decent guy in this neighborhood. He had taken Hikari in when she had a rough night with a client. He shared his ramen with the many orphans roaming the streets. Everyone knew that they were safe in his home. What Naruto didn't know is that the denizens kept tabs on him almost obsessively. He was one of them. He was their protector. He belonged to Kirigakure no Sato.

They all knew that being a prostitute, or drug runner, or thief was better than the life of a ninja. This neighborhood was no stranger to shinobi looking for an escape. Ninja came with haunted eyes to buy an alcohol, or a woman. Their hands might be filled with money, but at the same time they were covered in blood. All ninja died, either on the battlefield or a little bit inside until they became walking corpses.

Shadows smeared the streets of Kirigakure no Sato.

Hikari settled against the brick wall of an abandoned building with the coins nestled in the safety of her bra. She was the one who pitied him.

XXX

Naruto collapsed onto his bed, his room as messy as he felt. The stocked cabinets full of instant ramen, vitamin bars and canned meat was the only evidence Yuuki had stopped by. He tried to go to sleep but the couple down the hall was arguing again. Although, that had never stopped him from falling asleep before.

Then he heard a footsteps running up the stairs outside. By the time Naruto opened the door, an ebony streak of hair crashed passed his legs and stumbled onto the floor. Naruto closed the door and turned as his visitor picked himself up.

Kota wasn't an orphan, but soon he would be. His mother was critically ill and constantly in and out of hospital. They barely had enough money to pay the medical bills so Kota had stooped to doing errands for the local gangs. Judging by the heavy bleeding on the left side of the kid's face and the limp in his right leg, it wasn't going so well for him.

"You know where the bandages are," Naruto said and decided to make some ramen. He watched from the corner of his eye as Kota pulled the first aid kit from the cabinet. Naruto could offer to help but he knew it was better this way. He knew what it was like to be too stubborn and too proud. Sometimes Naruto wished he could enlist sensei's assistance but the children didn't trust sensei, they trusted him. They ran to him when things were desperate. More often than not, only in silence did he receive their gratitude.

The ramen was ready by the time Kota fixed himself up. He limped over to the table where a bowl was waiting for him. Naruto was never one to eat in silence, especially when he had company. "How is your mom?"

"The doctor says she's getting better," Kota slurped his noodles loudly, "but they're lying."

Naruto could see the fear cross the boy's face. The fear to lose a precious mother.

Sometimes Naruto wondered why he was alive for two years already when stronger and more experience ninja died everyday. Maybe because there were unspoken words and mutual understanding. There were unshed tears and long nights over bowls of ramen even when _everyone else_ knew that ramen could not fix everything. Naruto couldn't leave these kids alone. For most, he was all they had.

A knock came at the door. It was hard, rough, and threatening to break the door down.

"I didn't do it," Kota and Naruto said quickly, at the same time. Kota gave him a suspicious glare.

"I swear, I have no idea who break the window in the teashop," Naruto chuckled.

Kota smiled, "I swear, I have no idea who stole that watch."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders with a grin and walked over to his door. He opened it to reveal four thugs crowded in the hallway.

"Where is that punk?" The smallest one with a pock-marked face demanded. Even though he was small he was the most dangerous. He was a fifteen years old ninja retired due to injury. He looked over his shoulder and found Kota sitting at the table, eating ramen, and giving him an obscene hand gesture.

"I haven't seen any punks," Naruto replied innocently.

The retired ninja poked his finger at Naruto's nose. "You can't protect him forever."

No, Naruto couldn't. His home was just a safe place, before you had to wake up and deal with life. And life always came for them, whether they want it to or not. Everyone had their demons to face.

The thugs bristled, but they knew who they were dealing with. While young, Naruto was deadly. They had no choice but to back down. The retired ninja addressed Kota with a growl. "Next time kid, I'll kill you."

"I find him dead and I'll kill you." Naruto replied in turn, the words came easily to his mouth. The urge to kill was strong. Uzumaki was radiating killing intent. The thugs collapsed under the weight of it and scrambled down the hallway in fear.

Naruto sighed as he closed the door.

He turned around and Kota was eating his ramen much more happily. The boy kicked his good leg in a happy rhythm under the table. The kid's dark and troubled eyes brightened just a little.

"You were gone. Mission?" Kota asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said as he threw off his shirt.

Kota's eyes might have lingered a little too long on Naruto's bruises. "I still don't understand why you're a ninja."

"They're cool and they kick the shit out of thugs," Naruto suggested.

Kota stirred the noodles, then whispered into his bowl. "But ninjas die, like my dad."

"Not me. I've got to become Mizukage first so I can declare a national holiday dedicated to ramen and sushi."

"They'd never let you do that. Inarizushi is so much better."

Naruto looked appalled, "Now I'm going to have to kick you out of my house."

Kota scoffed as he stuffed the rest of the food in his mouth and jumped on the couch in defiance, "I'd like to see you try."

When Naruto ate his serving of ramen and canned meat, Kota was already asleep. Uzumaki walked into his room and collapsed into the bed. He didn't know what it was, perhaps Kota's snoring that finally lulled him to sleep.

Naruto woke up in the early dawn but when he walked into his cramped living room, Kota was already gone – along with all the money in his wallet. Naruto didn't seem to mind. He have purposely left it there. Uzumaki knew no matter how much money he had, it would not save Kota's mother but at the very least, give him more time with her. Every kid deserves more time with their mother, Naruto knew that from his own experience.

There were reasons why the young genius was the poorest ninja in the village. Even though Kushina left him a hefty sum she earned selling fuuinjutsu like storage scrolls and explosive tags.

There were so many things he wanted to change in Kirigakure. But first he had to become Mizukage, and in order to do that he had to survive. He have to become the strongest. This bloodthirsty village was his home and these desperate and sometimes vicious people were his people. He was part of this village and was one of the people who shared the curse of living in Kirigakure. This was everything Naruto had and he treasured it.

In the sink lay two washed bowls, the only clean items in the entire house.

XXX

"Want to talk?" Naruto asked as he crossed his arms and leaned against the railing on the ship. He was dressed in his hunter-nin attire similar to ANBU with Shinigami mask he had painted himself.

The two ANBU who too were send to the mainland and traveled on the same ship looked at one another, but kept their silence.

Naruto sighed, "Look, I'm not trying to get info on your mission or something like that. I'm just bored. Do you play cards?" Uzumaki asked.

Shark and Crab silently conceded that it wouldn't be bad to play cards for they were bored too.

"Do you know how to play goldfish?" Shark asked as he sat down and shuffled the cards that appeared in his hands seemingly out of nowhere.

"You're going to have to teach me that one," Naruto answered. Sometimes he wondered how he managed to talk his way into things, like a card game with two Kirigakure ANBU who had a rivalry with hunter-nins.

"Do you know anything about Momochi Zabuza?"

"Right mean bastard he is," Crab answered. "Powerful too. My buddy and his squad were butchered by the Demon of the Mist last year."

Shark scoffed. "What did you expect? Zabuza is one of the Seven Swordsmen and I heard that he is on the same level with late Hōzuki Mangetsu. Only this freak Hoshigake Kisame is stronger."

"Well, do you know why Mizukage-sama hasn't announced a new generation of Swordsmen?"

"Who the fuck do we have right now to be one?" Crab asked angrily. "Kiri isn't what it used to be. I heard whispers that rebels obtained Hiramekarei and gave it to some kid, but I think it's a lot of crap."

"What if this kid really is good enough to be a Swordsmen?" Naruto asked curiously.

"If he's that strong, if he's the real deal," Crab shook his head. "Then rebels are much more powerful then we thought. I've spent a few years spying in Konoha and the difference between our villages as night and day. In Konoha shinobi clans and fucking civilian council share power with the Hokage. In Kirigakure, it is the Swordsmen that share power with the Mizukage. They are the power, they have the respect, a good team of swordsmen faithful to the Kage is the only thing that can keep Kirigakure together for long."

"But Zabuza wasn't strong enough to overthrow Yagura."

"Mizukage-sama," Shark corrected.

Crab answered, "An assassination, a coup, a mutiny, its not exactly anything new. Zabuza didn't have enough supporters and our Mizukage might be killed only by another monster on the level of Kisame."

"Hey, do you think they will make me a Swordsman if I kill Zabuza and get Kubikiribōchō?"

The air shook with laugher. The thought that this young hunter-nin might kill Momochi Zabuza was so funny that two ANBU could help but laugh.

"Listen, kid, don't even think about it. Zabuza was named as Demon of the Mist for a reason." Crab said.

"But they will have to make you a Swordsman if you kill him." Shark added with hint of amusement in his voice.

Naruto glanced at the island that appeared on the left to the ship. He dropped his cards and stood up. "Thanks for the game guys. This is my destination."

Two ANBU watched as young hunter-nin was running on the water's surface in direction of Wave Country.

"Interesting kid." Shark said and stood up from the floor. His partner nodded agreeing.

XXX

"Who's there?"

The golden haired boy quietly stepped out of the shadows and cautiously walked towards the group of men sitting around a blazing fire.

"A kid? What do you want, boy?" The one with bare chest and great zanbatou on his back asked, his eyes never leaving the boy, tracing every movement of the intruder in tattered and frayed old clothes.

The boy surveyed the group gathered carefully before answering softly. "I was wondering if you were ninja."

One of the men in metal masks and horned hitai-ate laughed, and soon the other one joined in. "That we are, kid. What of it?"

The boy continued to watch them carefully as he picked his words. "I heard you could use magic. Like disappear into mist and make the waters attack. Is that true?"

The laugher returned, but the boy didn't flinch or shy away. His eyes were glued to the beautiful girl who smiled gently. The blonde waited patiently until the boisterous men regained their senses.

"You're talking about ninjutsu, kid, and seeing as we're ninja, you'd be right to assume we can."

"Can you show me some?" The boy's expression hadn't changed, his eyes reflecting the firelight eerily as he watched the ninja – taking in every nuance, every motion.

"Why should we do that, kid?"

The boy slowly brought a bag from where it had rested on his back and set it before him. He opened it as the ninja watched on, only to pull out a small square-shaped object wrapped in paper. "I've made some food. I'm not great at it, but it's probably better than what ninja carry with them. I was wondering if we could... trade?"

"So you'll give us food if we show you some jutsu, eh? Sounds a bit fishy." The ninja with great zanbatou paused for a moment in thought. "Then again, our rations are pretty shitty." He stood up and walked towards the boy – whose eyes still latched onto his every movement – until he could reach down into the bag himself. He quickly removed another wrapped morsel and held it out to the boy. "Eat it." There was a hint of menace in the speaker's voice.

The child took onigiri from the man and unwrapped it before devouring it enthusiastically.

"Looks alright to me. Alright kid, you've got yourself a deal."

The boy nodded stiffly and approached the campfire behind the older man.

"What is your name?" The beautiful girl smiled at the blonde with strange marks on his cheeks; he couldn't be that much older...

"Um, it's Naruto, miss." The boy answered shyly and the whole group blew up in laugher. The girl shook her head, "I'm a boy. My name is Haku."

Now identified Naruto almost jumped in surprise. "But-but... you are so beautiful! How can you be a boy?"

Haku didn't answer, but took the onigiri from the bag, "It's very delicious, Naruto-kun."

Bright smile appeared on the boy's face, "Yeah. My mom taught me how to make onigiri..." he trailed off with faraway look on his face.

Haku furrowed his brows, "I see." And he did, it was so easy to understand that the boy's mother was no longer alive. Their eyes were the same. They sparked with life yet bore such cold defiance.

Blonde shook his head, and turned his gaze on Haku once more. "So... What kind of magic you will show me?"

Haku smiled, "Hmm... let's see..." His gaze drifted to his companions who were quietly discussing something. "How about this –"

Hyōton user's hands blurred and next second from the closest puddle rose an exact replica.

"Wha –" Blond boy jumped on his feet and pointed his finger at the clone. He observed it with suspicious and disbelieve.

The man with bare chest and bandages on his face shoot a glance at Naruto, but after a moment scowled and turned away to continue his discussion with the other two men.

"This is _Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu_. As you can see, this ninjutsu creates a water clone." With the flick of his fingers, Haku dispelled the _mizu bunshin_.

Naruto huffed, looking at empty spot where the clone stood just a second ago, he moved closer to Haku and whispered, "Hey, can you teach me how to do that?"

Haku shook his head, "It's not that easy, Naruto-kun. You'll need years of practice with chakra."

"Cha-tra?"

Haku giggled rather girlishly, "No. It's chakra. Anyway, I can't teach you this jutsu." Seeing defeated look on the blonde's face he added quickly, "If you want, I can show you the handseal that will help you to access your chakra and maybe in a year or two you will be able to do some ninjutsu."

Naruto's face lit up with excitement, "Cool!"

Haku slowly and carefully made a Ram handseal, so Naruto can see it, "Now, you try to do the same handseal."

Hyōton user's eyes shifted at Naruto, who to Haku's amusement, did completely different handseal – Snake. "This is not right."

"Sorry." Uzumaki Naruto mumbled and released his chakra.

"Wha-" The tree rose from the ground and bound Haku with it's branches. It was a genjutsu, Haku realized. He couldn't move, he could barely breath...

Haku's blurry vision showed him how Zabuza slowly brought his hands together to release this genjutsu.

"Kai!" Zabuza roared, but nothing happened.

"It's useless. I added my own chakra to the onigiri you all ate. _Magen: Jubaku Satsu_ is very potent genjutsu by itself, but now it's unbreakable." Naruto's voice held new undercurrent in it, the one of power and finality.

Haku watched in despair as Naruto slit Zabuza's throat with kunai. Demon Brothers followed a moment later.

Hyōton user closed his eyes and welcomed the death. His life was desperate and worthless to the very end. But maybe on the other side he will find happiness?

Uzumaki Naruto sat on the log before the roaring fire. He didn't give the second glance to the four bodies laying on the ground. There was no need. They were dead and later he will seal them into storage scroll, but now he needed a couple of seconds to gather his thoughts. It's not like you kill a legend, everyday, right? And Momochi Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist was a legend.

No matter how powerful your enemies are, they can be killed. This philosophy was drilled into Naruto by his late mother, Uzumaki Kushina.

Kushina never really gave a great deal of thought to death. She lived in the moment, loved and hated with all her heart, and never thought about the future. She fought like a demon even without the Kyuubi, because it suited her and it made the enemies nervous.

Naruto shook his head and moved into the dark forest to emerge only a seconds later with couple of storage scrolls in his hands.

He released the first one and quickly changed into his normal attire with body armor, Shinigami mask and ninja-to strapped on his back.

The second scroll he used to seal the bodies of Zabuza, Haku and Demon Brothers, after his clone robbed them out of their possessions.

Naruto weighed Kubikiribōchō in his hand and smiled feeling that due to the perfect balance he was able wield it easily.

It's been two weeks since he arrived to the Wave Country and they were spent searching Zabuza and developing a plan on how to kill him. There was no point in staying any longer, but Naruto had his orders to wait a team. Also he remembered information on Gatou who apparently wanted to hire Zabuza. This might be interesting if he played it right, after all, he needed money and there was no point not to get some from this Gatou character.

XXX

Four days later Naruto woke up when the detection barrier he placed around the clearing was breached. It took him a second and one cross-shaped handseal to make three _kage bunshin_ that he _henge_-d in Zabuza's companions while he himself transformed in Demon of Mist himself. It was Kushina who taught him Konohagakure's kinjutsu, _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_, but due to relatively small chakra pool the blond boy had, he wasn't able to do more then five of clones a day. Still this jutsu was much more useful then _Mizu Bunshin_.

When three man entered the clearing Naruto smirked. He recognized the short, fat one, it was Gatou. The two other were some kind of ronin.

"Zabuza, I have decided to hire you to kill a bridge builder." Gatou sneered and pointed walking stick at Naruto. "But I'm not gonna pay you two millions for this assassination as you want."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and released a bit of killing intent. "Then I'm leaving this shitty country. You can send your goons for the old man." He nodded at two ronin and stood up.

Gatou's face turned red, but under the pressure of killing intent he didn't open his mouth. When killing intent disappeared he breathed in relief, and chewed his lip. "No, wait. I'll pay."

Naruto gave one of his most charming smiles, knowing full well how predatory it looked on Zabuza's face. "Where is the home of this bridge builder?"

Gatou started to sweat, "Hmm... well, you see... Yesterday, I learned that Tazuna left the country. He went to Konohagakure to hire some ninja to protection."

Naruto closed his eyes, "Four millions."

"What?!" Gatou yelled, but shut his mouth as one of Naruto's clones that was _henge_-d as one of the Demon Brothers put a clawed hand on his shoulder from behind. Gatou didn't even see the movement.

"Don't raise your voice, trash." Naruto seethed. Gatou gulped and nodded. "Four millions. Do we have a deal?" Kiri shinobi added.

"Yes." Gatou felt as ninja behind disappeared. "Zori escort Zabuza and his people to the hideout we prepared for them."

XXX

Naruto _henge_-d as Zabuza watched from the trees, dark gaze focusing on the scene below him. He held out a hand, signaling to one of his clones standing in the shadows of the foliage. His keen eyes never left the figures gathered on the road beneath him. He felt the clone behind him disappear and he reached to his back, fingers curling around and gripping the smooth hilt of the blade strapped to his shoulders.

He smirked. The creases in the white bandages wrapped across his jaw were visible.

Two teams of Konoha ninja. Two jounin and six genin.

And of course his target, the bridge builder.

Theoretically this would be a piece of cake, easiest mission in the world. There were thousands ways to kill a civilian. At first he wanted to attack without parading as Zabuza and kill all enemies, but after some thought decided against it.

Turns out his precaution was just, because one of the jounin walking down that dirt path was none other than Hatake Kakashi.

Hatake fucking Kakashi. Sharingan no Kakashi. Copy nin Kakashi. The Kakashi, student of his father, Yondaime Hokage. Son of White Fang. Creator of S-ranked assassination techniques and an Elite Jounin of Konohagakure no Sato. A legend in the shinobi world.

Adrenalin and chakra were boiling in Naruto's veins, he already killed one legend, should he try to take down another one?

Golden haired boy wasn't really worried about anyone besides Kakashi. Once the fight started, most of them would be a dead weight. Literally.

The hand on the hilt of Kubikiribōchō jerked, urging him to engage now. Just to get it over with. But Naruto hadn't got to where he was now by being impatient. His shinobi instincts begged him to engage but his survivor instincts told him to run. He had a job to do, and it took two years of fine-tuning, two years of constant fighting to hone your instincts and hold your urges back.

But it didn't matter, they would all die today. At least Tazuna would die for sure.

To a shinobi, there was no such thing as a flashy entrance. The word flashy did not even exist in the vocabulary of a ninja. It shouldn't. And it was the first thing Chūkichi-sensei purged from the mind of Naruto.

You kill first and celebrate later.

Don't take time thinking of a great entrance, it will get yourself killed. Killing the opponent, cutting first, burning, drowning, maiming him beyond recognition should be your main goal. It should be the thought hovering at the back of your mind all the time.

How can I kill him fastest?

His hand gripped the blade on his back. They were close now, almost passing the grove of trees directly in front of him. His fingers curled tighter around the hilt, sliding down the length to the unguarded blade of the massive weapon.

It would soon be time.

His clones would attack from the back, killing the genin or in Naruto's preference, the target. From there he would take apart the jounin or retreat. Naruto still had the element of surprise. Hopefully it would be quick.

He watched the Konoha ninja pass the grove, watched as the first of them set his foot past his threshold. Subconsciously, Naruto began to draw the mist around him, gathering moisture from the lake up ahead. It was one of the two elemental manipulations he was taught to support the silent killing, one he could do without even thinking. He wasn't an apprentice of silent killing master for nothing. In the last twenty years, there were only two silent killing masters in Kirigakure, his sensei and Zabuza. Now Zabuza was dead and Naruto planned to became a master himself.

Uzumaki was taught to take any environment and change it to suite himself.

The mist thickened.

They were on his turf now.

He could feel the shadows pooling farther down the road, clones now moving into position. He could hear the soft padding of feet, the small spikes in chakra.

He closed his eyes. He let his senses take him over. He let them guide him. He let his battle instinct override. His 'sixth' sense.

They would all die.

Naruto sense their chakra, could hear their heartbeat, and feel their breath. He could 'see' everything there was to know about the shinobi in his path. He pictured each of them, laying out each of their weaknesses and strengths.

Uzumaki reached to his back, hand calm but eager to grip cold steel. His muscles rippled. Kubikiribōchō released from his hand with a hiss and shot like a boomerang through the trees, blade spinning on a deadly turn.

He could practically hear it screaming death.

The blade moved without resonance, piercing through the mist as it descended onto the path. The cold, dull gray steel flashed abruptly into existence, making its silent entrance out from the depths of the great trees surrounding the dirt road. Around the blade the mist churned, the speed of the projectile forcing the mist to part ways. It shimmered in the air; unseen afterimages burned the sky in its wake.

The _kage bunshin_ could barely track the path of the blade, his keen eyes losing sight in the thick mist. But he didn't worry; his boss would have it all taken care of. If he could barely see it, what were the chances of the Konoha ninja being able to track the deadly edge of Kubikiribōchō?

The clone _henge_-d into Haku waited and listened. He closed his eyes, ears searching for that scream of pain, a scream filled with complete agony. The scream of torture as a blade pierced through the flesh and tore straight through bone. He listened, waiting for the gurgle of blood and the flopping of a lifeless body to the ground that would follow the scream.

"Duck!"

The clone heard the high-pitched wail come from somewhere inside the mist and the scream that tore from the throat of the boss' victim. He made no noise, feet carrying him through the foliage with speed and silence born and honed from years of killing. He could sense two other clones moving to their positions.

He analyzed the situation in his mind, his feet taking him soundlessly through the bloody mist. The kunai in his hand flipped, fingers reversing the grip as he traveled toward the helpless group of shinobi. Boss had done a perfect job of splitting them all up, now all he had to finish the task.

And Konohagakure believe itself to be the strongest of the Great Ninja Villages? Pitiful.

The clone faded into the mist right when blazing inferno struck the group of shinobi.

Fusion attack of _Futon: Daitoppa_ and _Katon: Gōkakyū_ executed by two other _kage bunshin_ evaporated the mist and brought the cries of pain and death.

The mission was completed. Tazuna was burned to death.

The clone could sense his boss retreating in the speed of _shunshin_. The other clones released themselves for they had no chakra anymore.

There were only five people alive now. Two jounin and three genin that these jounin saved. He still have chakra and he still have a job to do.

Something was coming.

He tensed, muscles made of chakra coiling, bunching together. He could feel the presence behind him, the jounin ready to strike. It wasn't Kakashi. Shadow clone felt the enemy build up chakra, felt his anxiety. He could feel all of his projected emotions. His hand snapped forward, the kunai sliding out of the holster on his wrist.

He could feel jounin's surprise, feel him shift through the heavy mist that he summoned again and see his hands finish a seal. It was already too late. His kunai flashed into existence, barreling with incredible speed, coated in wind chakra. The kunai slapped into jounin's throat, shredding his neck into a thousand fleshy pieces. Blood sprayed into the mist, splashing across the ground.

_Kage bunshin_ watched calmly, body already losing the tension it possessed only a moment before. The jounin was dead, no doubt about it. The force of his throw had shattered the man's throat and severed his head from the neck. He turned around and started to move, each step resounding oddly through his ears. Shadow clone stopped, body tensing again as he looked around. Something was missing. His gazed flickered from the surroundings back to the man.

Gone.

His body was fading away, bone, flesh and blood replaced by small grains of black ash.

Clone's eyes widened. Darkness consumed his body and the shadows played, casting their inky color onto the swirling mist.

"Kai!" The shadows receded. His eyes focused on the ninja in front of him.

Narrowed eyes, senbon in the mouth, hitai-ate as bandanna. Hands released from the seal they were holding a moment ago. Clone heard him speak, his voice somehow pounding into his throbbing pseudo brain.

"So you broke my illusion huh? That's pretty good... you're no ordinary ninja."

Shadow clone smiled, it was a beautiful smile that Naruto have seen on Haku.

"But you're going to die here!"

Clone paid no attention to this empty ultimatum. He was a _kage bunshin_, after all. He lunged forward, the chakra in his body fueling his already impressive speed. His kunai flashed through the mist.

_"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!"_

The flames almost licked his clothing – the clone twisted away just in time. His kunai was knocked away by the jounin. He saw the young boy dash toward him, two blades poised to strike. White hair and angry scowl.

Everything passed by in an instant.

And then he was on the defensive.

The clone was caught in a dead lock, one hand holding off the jounin's attack while the other was pressed against the blade of the young boy that was threatening to pierce his body. His chakra swirled in agitation around him.

It was time. He smiled and murmured. "Boom!"

The world vanished into darkness in a fiery explosion. _Bunshin Daibakuha_ was a nasty ninjutsu.

Only jounin was fast enough to jump away and survive.

XXX

Naruto was rushing through the trees when he received the memories of his last clone. Small smile appeared on his face. He could sense Kakashi closing on him. The man was enraged and that was understandable. Out of eight ninja and civilian only four were alive and from what he gleamed two genin who survived weren't unharmed. Deep down Naruto wanted to stop and fight Hatake Kakashi, but he knew when to retreat, he knew when he was outclassed. There was no chance he could beat Copy nin in normal battle. Not yet at least.

It was a strange chase.

Kakashi followed Naruto never closing to him while thousands thoughts rushed in the golden hair boy's mind – well, he wasn't golden haired now for he was transformed into Zabuza.

Uzumaki never considered himself to be heavy battle ninja. Naruto was too young, his chakra reserves were too small and his battle experience too little. He was tactician and strategist of unparalleled skill though. And it made him an ultimate assassin. None of his targets survived, he killed them all. While Naruto's jutsu repertoire wasn't large, he wasn't weak. He didn't practice any special taijutsu, his movements weren't fluid, it was quite opposite, they were ragged, unpredictable and deadly. He used both ninjutsu and genjutsu easily, sometimes fusing them together. This combined with incredibly fast chakra molding and jutsu casting made him deadly.

That being said, right now Naruto was the prey while the hunter was someone much more powerful. Someone who will totally annihilate him in normal circumstances. Good thing that Naruto was prepared.

He jumped to the clearing that was his destination and did a series of handseals erecting a barrier he prepared before. Ten seconds later, Kakashi dropped before the glowing red barrier and narrowed his single visible eye. He didn't use his implanted sharingan today yet.

"Hello, Hatake Kakashi, it's pleasure to meet you." Naruto said and took a small scroll from the pouch. He unrolled it and pressed the glowing with chakra hand to the fuuinjutsu array and in small cloud of smoke Kubikiribōchō appeared. Right after he killed Zabuza, Naruto placed summoning fuuinjutsu array to his new sword. He really didn't want to lose legendary weapon, after all, he planned to become one of the Seven Swordsmen.

"Momochi Zabuza, if you believe that _Shishienjin _will save you, you are mistaken. You will die on this clearing by my hand when the chakra in this barrier ends." Kakashi spat, the venom in his voice was unmissable.

Naruto smiled and Kakashi continued, "I never thought that the Demon of the Mist will run away from the battle like a scared dog."

Naruto's smile grew bigger, it was visible even under his face wraps, "I'm professional, Kakashi. There is no point to fight you after I did my job in killing the bridge builder. But do tell me, how many of your genin survived today?"

Kakashi exploded with killing intent, but next moment it completely disappeared. "There is no point to speak with a deadman."

Naruto sat on the ground and waived his hand, "You are truly an idiot, Hatake." It was a statement. "Why do you think I erected this barrier knowing that I basically blocking myself on this clearing?"

Kakashi narrowed his eye, and opened his mouth to answer, but stopped himself. Why, indeed?

"I know what you are thinking, Hatake. Probably, something about the reinforcement that I'm waiting, but you are lucky today. No one will come to help me." Naruto said casually, before pausing, "Now, I believe we chatted enough." He did a handseal and the barrier changed it's color to black. Making it impossible for Kakashi to see what Naruto was doing inside.

Copy-nin opened his sharingan eye, but even with doujutsu he could see nothing. Nasty feeling wormed into his heart, for he didn't know what to think about Zabuza's plan with this barrier.

Inside the barrier Naruto concentrated and started to do a long series of handseals. He will need a couple of minutes of calm and quiet to execute the technique. Kushina knew more then anyone else about _Hiraishin_ except of her husband, so she created the version of this jutsu that was impossible to use during the fight, but otherwise was really useful.

Kakashi sensed the spike of chakra, but nothing happened with the barrier. He turned around and glanced at Genma who jumped from the tree top and looked like shit. He himself didn't look much better either.

"I left my shadow clone with Sasuke and Sakura, they are mostly unharmed but others..." Genma trailed off and cringed. Kakashi closed his single eye for a moment in understanding. There was only one genin who died today from Kakashi's team, Ruyjin, while Genma has lost all of his genin on their first C-rank mission. It was a disaster.

"So, is he inside?" Genma pointed on the barrier.

"Yes, but I don't understand why he blocked himself."

"I guess, we will find out soon enough... and then kill this mother fucker."

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah."

XXX

While Kakashi and Genma were standing before the _Shishienjin_, Naruto struck one of Gatou's goons with his zanbatou. The parts of other were laying on the floor of mahogany room. When the shower of blood erupted from decapitated corpse, Gatou pissed himself crouching in the corner of the room.

"Where is my money, Gatou?" Naruto spoke menacingly.

"The- they are all here." Sweating shipping magnate pointed to the safe and started to whine, "I didn't order Zori and Waraji to kill you. I didn't know about it, Zabuza."

Naruto stepped closer, "Oh..."

"I'll pay..." The man shrieked as Naruto's killing intent became suffocating. He opened his safe and pointed on the money. "I have forty millions here. Please, don't kill me!"

Naruto kicked the fat man away and sealed the money in one of his scrolls.

When he turned around and made a step to the door Uzumaki heard a relieved sigh from Gatou. He grinned and in one motion turned around and brought the Kubikiribōchō on shipping magnate, slicing him in two.

"Sorry, but I really don't like you."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Kirigakure was not a village, but a graveyard.

Naruto swore. The stench of blood and decay was making its way into his nose, clouding his mind. There was only death in his home today. Everything was wet and grey and red as though a wildfire had blazed through, quickly followed by a tsunami made of blood. Corpses lay scattered across the debris of shops and houses, bloated and oozing in their death masks.

He knew that something was wrong the moment he didn't meet the patrols on the shores of Water Country but this...

A hundred or so ninja picked their way through the debris. They pulled bodies out and piled them high upon the limp mound of the dead. Naruto stepped back as two haggard looking men hurried past, carrying what appeared to be the corpse of a boy between them. The victim's flesh was so swollen, it bulged against the tight constraints of his forehead protector in angry blue veined rolls. Naruto watched them toss the body on top of the ever growing pile. The corpse rolled back down from its height like a sack of potatoes, its limbs flailing wildly in obscure directions before it landed on the ground with a sickening crack.

Golden haired boy turned his eyes to the place where his apartment complex stood before. There was only a pile of stone and wood. The whole district was destroyed.

Naruto tried his best to ignore the view. Instead, he directed his attention to the faces of ninja, searching for someone familiar, someone who could explain what happened – he pretty much knew what have happened, but wanted to hear the details.

It was too quiet.

Kirigakure appeared to be dead in every sense of the word, it just had people still living in it.

Not a word was spoken as Naruto approached the smaller, inner sanctum of the village. Tall cylindrical buildings poked up from behind the wall like chimneys. The jagged mountains standing in the distance were shrouded in a thick mist.

As he closed to the inner entrance, a voice called out.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Naruto."

Uzumaki blinked. Sitting beside a small shogi table at the entrance of the gate, was no other then Hōzuki Suigetsu. The white haired boy smiled predatory and this smile made Naruto's blood to boil. They graduated the same class in Academy and Suigetsu always hated Naruto. The feeling was actually mutual.

"Suigetsu." Naruto replied. "I thought you'd be dead by now."

It was a wonder how Naruto managed to make even the most morbid of topics sound like a light conversation about the weather.

Suigetsu chuckled darkly. He pulled himself up from the chair he had been sitting on and strode towards Naruto, katana resting on his shoulder. "As you can see we had a very interesting time while you were out of the country."

"I had a mission," Uzumaki answered reasonably. "But do tell me the details of what happened."

Suigetsu smiled wider, revealing two rows of sharp pointed teeth. "We have a new Mizukage now. New order was established in Kirigakure."

There was something strange about the whole manner in which he spoke. He threw his words around like the punches, as if he planned to squash Naruto with the very syllables alone.

Naruto was completely unmoved by the whole thing. If anything, he was a little bored. He knew Suigetsu well and knew that he could bark, but not bite. "Will this new Mizukage make you one of the Seven Swordsmen?"

Suigetsu narrowed his eyes and moved in a blur bringing his katana down on Naruto. One moment Suigetsu was standing and positioned to cut Uzumaki in two. The next, he was lying flat on his back in the dust completely winded, the golden haired boy standing over him, brushing his hands together. Katana lay discarded meters away from the white haired boy's grasping hands.

"Tch, still loser, I see."

"Enough!" Someone called and Naruto turned to be greeted with angry Ao.

"What are you doing here, Uzumaki?" Hunter Ninja Commander seethed, "You had an order to trail Zabuza. Why did you return?" Single visible eye was narrowed.

"Here is your Zabuza." Naruto threw the storage scroll to Ao. "There are also Demon Brothers and the fake hunter-nin." Uzumaki channeled chakra into the seal on the cloth wrapping around his right arm and Kubikiribōchō appeared in the cloud of smoke. He placed the massive sword on his shoulder.

Naruto glanced at the gathered crowd of shinobi and civilians. They were looking at him in awe and disbelieve. Murmur rose about the _real_ Swordsmen they have now. "Old man, where is Chūkichi-sensei and what the fuck happened here?" He asked Ao.

Ao pinned the bridge of his nose, "Let's go, Naruto. I'll explain you everything on the way to your new apartment."

Suigetsu was looking at the back of Naruto with unreadable expression on his face. He will defect from Kirigakure no Sato a week later.

Ao and young ninja moved quietly. Half way to their destination Naruto recognized where they were going. His thoughts were confirmed as they walked into high circular building and moved up to the seventh floor.

Before Naruto could say anything Ao spoke, "Chūkichi died in the battle against Yagura. This apartment is yours now." Uzumaki closed his eyes, dark shadow flickered across his face.

He knew the apartment they stood in. It belonged to his sensei. The place was completely different from the one where he lived before. It was big, clean and light. Naruto glanced at some boxes in the corner of the living room.

"Chūkichi brought your things here. He didn't want you to lose your mother's pictures and other stuff."

"Why did you side with rebels?" This question was something Naruto couldn't understand. Why betray Yagura after so many years of fighting against rebels?

Ao cocked his head to the side observing Naruto, "Yagura was controlled. Nothing more then a puppet in someones hands." He moved to the door, but paused, "Our new Mizukage is Terumi Mei, a ninja with two kekkei genkai. You'll meet two other young Swordsmen during the week."

When Ao left the apartment, Naruto sat on the couch and stared into white wall. Difficult times were coming. New Mizukage and Ao will surly purge the ranks of shinobi of any opposition to make sure that no kekkei genkai haters are alive. What was his role in this play? The question was difficult and Naruto didn't want to think about it. Not yet at least.

XXX

Mei nodded as the protests died down. She fingered the blue and white hat bearing the symbol for water. At her right side Ao sat having informed those assembled high level shinobi of the fact that Yagura was controlled by unknown entity and given his explanation to the new doctrine by which they are stopping kekkei genkai purges and welcoming kekkei genkai people in Kirigakure no Sato. He had also outlined the laws that would be instituted to maintain the secrecy. If someone learns about their state, one of the hidden villages might attack their country. They must rebuilt Kirigakure no Sato and their shinobi forces as soon as possible.

Even in this difficult time it had been enough for the assembled jounin to know that Ao was supporting the new Mizukage. Most of them were vicious killers who will kill the child without a question if this was ordered to them. But in their own way they were patriots and Kiri was their home. Kekkei genkai shinobi would be needed for continual survival of Kiri, and these purges were weakening their nation's forces. Veteran ninja knew that Water Country would need every advantage when other countries began probing Kirigakure for weaknesses in the wake of the disaster with Yagura. They hadn't needed an explanation for that.

What had caused the uproar was the revelation that not only Mizukage will reform the Seven Swordsmen, but the fact that three swords were given to _genin_. To be precious only two swords of Seven Swordsmen were discussed. All jounin knew that yesterday genin Uzumaki Naruto returned from a mission where he assassinated missing-nin Momochi Zabuza and took Kubikiribōchō for himself. They could understand that and were somewhat content with the boy who proved himself to be powerful. But the other two ninja were unknown to them. Chōjūrō was given Hiramekarei by Mei some time ago and the boy, while talented swordsman, didn't prove himself in any way. The same might be said about Ranmaru who was Kurosuki Raiga's apprentice. Raiga joined rebels, but died during the coup leaving Kiba swords to the boy.

Mizukage had spoken her piece about their existence being a deterrent against enemies in the future but many of the ninja in the room felt uncomfortable at the thought of such power in the hands of genin. What would happen if these genin will lose their swords in battle with foreign ninja?

Ao, who became both ANBU and Hunter-nin Commander was certain they would follow orders however. What really worried him was the response he would get when this information was disseminated to the lower ranks of chuunin and genin. He didn't worried about Naruto for the boy was strong, but he didn't know anything about Ranmaru, only the fact that he was a kekkei genkai shinobi with dōjutsu.

As the room settled down the Godaime Mizukage sighed.

"That's all for today, an official announcement of the new laws will be passed out later today. The funeral service for those who have fallen will be held tomorrow..." Her gaze sharpened. "I don't need to tell you that there will be harsh times ahead of us but..."

She leaned back into her chair at the apex of the semi-circular conference table and looked into the eyes of the assembled ninja before her. Finally she said. "I believe in you, dismissed!"

When the ninja left the room, Mei stood up from her chair and moved to the couch in the corner, she sat down and turned to Ao. "I'm thinking of the ways to stabilize our village as soon as possible. Do you have any ideas?"

Ao closed his single visible eye thinking and after a minute spoke, "We must retrieve Rokubi. I believe Utakata will return knowing that Yagura is dead."

Mei smiled at him teasingly as she crossed her legs, the action doing interesting things to her body under the tight attire she was wearing. "Why don't we send our new Swordsmen to him?"

Ao nodded, "Good idea, Mizukage-sama. Naruto might be the only one who will be able to find him fast."

Mei quirked an eyebrow, "Oh? How will he do that?"

"Chūkichi had very good personal spy network on the mainland. I believe Uzumaki knows couple of contacts of his sensei."

Mizukage closed her eyes processing this information. "Fascinating. Chūkichi was truly resourceful shinobi and his apprentice... is very interesting too." She paused for a second. "You know, I'm actually starting to feel that it was a good thing that Zabuza was assassinated. While I wanted to recruit him at first, this result is even better."

"Indeed. Zabuza was well regarded by those who wanted an end to Yagura's reign but didn't feel comfortable supporting kekkei genkai users. If he was still alive he might have tried to overthrow you. But now this issue is solved."

"Send Swordsmen tomorrow. Our jinchuuriki is too important, we can't allow other hidden villages to capture him."

XXX

Naruto watched his companions from the corner of his eye as the team settled for a night. They didn't speak much during the trip they made to the mainland, everyone was thinking about their new position as one of the Seven Swordsmen and Naruto was mourning his dead friends. Chūkichi-sensei, Yuuki-chan, Hikari even this brat Kota – they all died in the battle between rebels and Mizukage's forces.

Uzumaki remembered others whose bodies he found in the ruins of Kirigakure.

Aiko was six when he first met her near a bin, she was abandoned and nearly gone. She was weak and terrified for a very long time afterwards, even when elderly couple who owned dango shop took her in. Her chubby hand was always be found in Sakata-san's.

Dai didn't know how old he was, didn't know his family name, didn't know the last time he ate, and only wished he didn't know what his elder brother's back looked like when he finally became a mouth that could not be fed. Naruto met Dai when brat tried to steal from him.

Yuriko was a happy child, bright in the shadow of her elder sibling. She didn't remember a mother or father and only knew abstractly what it means when periodic flu epidemics sweep through Water Country. She remembered feverish brows and blurry eyes and most importantly sure hands and blue eyes that fed her sister water and poultices. She remembered fearful days spend in flux and the bright clarity of waking to see her sister smiling down at her. She remembered thanking the blue eyed boy. She died in explosion thinking of these blue eyes.

Yukimaru has spent a lifetime looking. Looking through looking at faces, looking at hands, looking at bored old men sipping tea, looking at giggling men with orange novels in hand. He has spend a lifetime looking and looking and wasn't able to contain his joy the first time Naruto showed him the characters of his name. He died knowing that he can understand that secret code – _kanji – _that hid everything from him.

Yutaka was more broken than most. Gills at the neck and faintly blue skin marked him more obvious than most. The fact that he survived so long was a miracle. And he was brilliant as only shinobi breed could be. Uzumaki taught him how to properly use kunai, but in the end it didn't help the boy.

These were the lives that ended battle for Kirigakure no Sato. The children Naruto knew, the children Naruto shared his food and helped all died. It pained him to know that in the end he didn't save any of them.

"Ah, Naruto, why aren't you preparing for the night?" The weak voice brought blond boy from his thoughts. Naruto glanced at the speaker, Chōjūrō, and shrugged, "I'm thinking about going to my contact right now. He is much further away then the two assigned to you guys."

"Tch, I still, don't see why the fuck I should do that." Grumbled another person and Naruto turned to Ranmaru.

The boy's hair were covered by bandanna. A malnourished kekkei genkai ninja already lost one of his precious dōjutsu eyes and two fingers in the name of blind justice and rage. Ranmaru was proud, Naruto could see that easily. Proud of surviving, of being stronger, of being different then others. He is rebellious and destructive. Kurosuki Raiga was everything he ever had.

Ranmaru's dōjutsu was lesser renown only due to its rarity and the fact that its traits had only one generation ago begun to reliably express themselves safely. It imbued one with the ability to cast genjutsu that confounded even the byakugan and sharingan and the talent to see the Yang chakra within all living creatures. This incredible kekkei genkai was almost lost to Kirirgakure no Sato.

"Listen to me Ranmaru," Naruto said in a voice void of any emotions, "you better stop bitching and thinking about defecting from Kiri." The kid in bandanna narrowed his single eye at the blonde, but before he can say anything Naruto continued, "If you betray me or Chōjūrō or our village, I'll find you and fucking gut you like a fish."

Ranmaru positioned his Kiba swords to attack, but after a second, seeing barely restrained rage in Uzumaki's eyes huffed and turned around.

"Um, we are Swordsmen now, we shouldn't fight between ourselves." Chōjūrō gulped in the end of his speech.

"Shut up, Chōjūrō." Naruto said not looking at Hiramekarei wielder, jumped on the tree branch and placed fuuinjutsu formula on it. "We meet here in two days."

When Uzumaki disappeared in the night, Chōjūrō turned to his companion, "You shouldn't provoke Naruto like that, he is scary, you know."

"Shut up, pussy, don't speak to me!" Was Ranmaru's heated reply.

XXX

The feeling of wind sweeping against his face and the wild freedom of simply racing through the trees was wonderful. It didn't matter that the night was damp and the moon's light obscured was by the canopy, it was exhilarating. He felt as if his mother was moving with him. Naruto wanted to laugh and his heart raced as he deftly followed the shape of virtual Kushina.

His grin broadened when he almost saw virtual Kushina glance back at him with a smile on her full lips. Naruto couldn't see the smile, but he knew it was there, it must be there. It was impossible not to smile, when the chase in the treetops made him feel so much alive. Naruto wondered how he could have lived without this before he became ninja, without the thrill of a mission and the adrenaline building in anticipation. The feeling of pure joy made him leap up beside almost-real-Kushina and grin mischievously as he sped off between the branches. His mother made a sound that could be a chuckle, and Naruto could practically feel her close the distance again before she suddenly was in front of him and the blonde swore he saw her wink at him.

They continued their game of cat and mouse throughout the night, hunting each other and overtaking each other with every step. It wasn't a very energy efficient way of travel, but Naruto did cover a great distance. His virtual mother sometimes would push or pull at Naruto to make him lose balance or concentration. Golden haired boy pushed back, or at least tried to, for he was never able to catch his mother. From time to time he almost heard pure joyous laughter of the young woman.

When it was at least four hours to dawn he landed on the road that lead to the Tanzaku Gai. The plan formed in his mind. Two minutes later sexy blond girl entered the town. She was wearing rather low-cut sleeveless blouse which left a good deal of cleavage exposed and a short skirt.

He moved through the city, twisting and turning in an effort to reach the needed location. After traveling for what seemed like twenty minutes, Naruto noticed that the city began to look more and more grimy and dilapidated. He moved in the right direction at least.

He finally came to a run down, multi-story structure that was just one of many that seemed to tower over the lonely lane that ran before it. He concentrated and after a couple of seconds knew that there were no ninja in the building. Good. It will make his job easier. Naruto approached a man standing by a beaten door leading into the building. The man was dressed in clothing that would have once been considered fancy attire, but now was too dirty and frayed to be worn out in broad daylight without drawing attention.

The man threw the cigarette to the ground and stomped it out before addressing Naruto. "Can I help you, little lady?"

"I certainly hope so," he replied in an alluring voice that heard Hikari used.

"I'm here to offer the boss a little entertainment." He winked at the man and leaned forward a bit, revealing even more cleavage to the now near-drooling man.

"I haven't heard anything about any entertainment tonight, lady." The man's voice was shaky and his eyes wouldn't leave Naruto's _henge_-d chest.

"My master sent me to make sure that your boss was well taken care of tonight." Uzumaki spoke using that sultry voice.

The man's face bore a confused expression before taking morphing into disgusting mask of lust. "I see."

"I can come in, right?"

The man glanced at his face before his attention moved back to his breasts. "I suppose you can go in."

With that Naruto entered through the rusty door now held open for him by the man. The inside of the building was lit almost painfully bright. Compared to the dark street outside it seemed to Naruto as if he had just looked directly into the sun. Still, he marched determinedly up a flight of stairs to reach the second floor. It led to a corridor branching both left and right. At the end of the left hallway, Naruto could make out a small room where a group of men gathered around a table arguing loudly. They certainly were playing cards. Another roughshod man stood in the corridor to the right and straightened as he approached.

Naruto walked up to him and smiled seductively. "I'm here to entertain the boss for the night."

"Alright, just get in there and do your thing. Afterwards I might even have some work for you." He smiled wickedly and Naruto promised to himself, if he had a chance, to kill this man painfully. Normal people don't smile like that.

He walked through another grimy door and into a deserted room decorated with a stained rug and a few chairs. They continued through it to a door on the opposite wall. Inside was a larger room with a number of battered pieces of furniture and a few modern appliances scattered about, including a television. On an ugly, brown couch against the wall lay a man with gray hair and a grizzled complexion. Naruto didn't think him fat, per se, but everything on his body seemed to sag even as he sat up on the couch and acknowledged their presence.

"Well hello, my dear. To what do I owe this pleasure?" The man leered disgustingly at Naruto as he stood from his seat and began to approach them. Uzumaki looked at him dispassionately.

The man stopped his approach as Naruto flashed through handseals and stomp his foot to the floor, the black fuuinjutsu array appeared covering the floor, ceiling, and walls, sealing any sounds of leaving the room. Next moment he undid the _henge_.

The man recognized who was standing before him and dropped on his knees with terrified expression on his face. "Don't kill me, Naruto. It wasn't my fault that I didn't get information your sensei wanted!"

Naruto sneered, "You're scum, Takeda." He looked down on the cowering form with contempt, "But I didn't come here to kill you. All I need is a location of Utakata."

The man whined, "I don't know where he is. You must believe me."

Naruto chuckled darkly, "I can tell lies by sensing chakra fluctuations and you are lying to me..."

The man crawled closer whispering, "I can't tell you. He will kill me. He will."

Naruto lunged forward and stuck a kunai in the fat man's back, not really deep, but made sure that it was painful. The yell of pain was a music to his ears. "You shouldn't fear Utakata when I'm here."

Next two minutes Naruto spent torturing Takeda, the man broke down fast and told him where Utakata was hiding. "If you told me what I wanted at the beginning you wouldn't be in this position." He said to a whimpering bloody mass that was a healthy man just not long ago. "But don't die on me here, your services might be needed in future."

Naruto sat on the couch and concentrated on his chakra doing the long series of handseals. Four minutes later he executed his space-time ninjutsu and transported himself to the clearing where he agreed to meet with his team.

There was no one in the clearing, Ranmaru and Chōjūrō already left to meet two other contacts.

_I have time, so no point in wasting it_, Naruto though as he sat on the log and unsealed the scroll with new jutsu he wanted to learn.

_Kanashibari no Jutsu - a D-rank ninjutsu that physically restrains an opponent by temporary blocking Hachimon, Eight Gates. It debilitates the victim for a short period of time. The intensity of jutsu will vary greatly according to the user's level of skill and his opponent's chakra control. The technique can also be cast on many targets at once._

There was a small addition written in red color by Chūkichi under the explanation on how to execute technique.

_With enough chakra control and mastery of this jutsu, the user might learn to execute it without any handseals, just through an eye contact with opponent. _

Naruto memorized how to execute _Kanashibari no Jutsu _and put the scroll away. A single handseal later five _kage bunshin_ appeared.

"You know what to do. Let's mater this technique."

XXX

The trees he was running along were different to those that grew in Water Country. They repelled chakra rather then gently attracting it. It was easy to misjudge a step and slip.

Ranmaru couldn't afford a mistake like that. He'd killed the first two Konoha ninja by dumb luck and a quick hand, but the remaining two were wary. They were hanging back and not running close together. It would be impossible to caught them in genjutsu and get rid of both of them at once, but he had to get rid of them.

His fucking contact apparently sold him to Konohagakure and died for this. Ranmaru made sure to make his death painful even if he had little time. Stupid Konoha ninja didn't know of his kekkei genkai so he learned of the trap around the contact's house. Ranmaru pushed off another tree branch, and leaped higher into the canopy. He needed some way to get out of sight so he could set some sort of trap. Fuck, now he could see Yang chakra of another team closing to him. He already have too little chakra to use his Kiba swords. Ranmaru's hands began forming handseals as his mind began forming a plan.

Two _mizu bunshin_ appeared from the closest stream. One jumped off to the left behind a tree, and the second stopped and tried to tackle the closest shinobi. It missed, but the dodging ninja was immediately slapped in the chest with a branch as thick as Ranmaru's leg. Konoha ninja flew backwards and fell. The remaining one threw a handful of kunai at Ranmaru, two of which skimmed his left arm and the third stuck right above his elbow.

Ranmaru threw a kunai back as he forced chakra back into his legs and feet. His muscles were all burning, and he had a stitch in his side. He'd been running for what had to be four hours. But unfortunately he couldn't, and wasn't, counting on the enemies being as tired as he was.

He was distantly aware that his clone was destroyed by the enemy a few feet behind and to the left. Ranmaru's arm, where he'd been hit with the kunai, was becoming numb. Poison was something Kiri shinobi hadn't been counting on. It was spreading slowly, but the faster his heart beat the faster the poison would spread. He didn't have long before his arm would be useless.

_So act now, _Ranmaru thought to himself. He jumped down a few branches, and made an only half controlled descent to the forest floor. His arm was numbing, he was low on chakra, and he was tired. He wouldn't survive a long battle. He had to finish it quickly.

Ranmaru whipped around, and was faced with a veritable cloud of shuriken. He jumped back, but several hit his legs. He dodged the punch aimed at his stomach, and jerked three of the more firmly lodged shuriken out of his calf. He threw them at the enemy, who deflected them easily.

The man, Hyūga, paused for a moment, and looked at Ranmaru with his byakugan active. "You are dead, kid."

The young Swordsman didn't miss the chance and cast a genjutsu using his dōjutsu. The Hyūga cried in horror as he was blinded.

"_Raiku!"_ Ranmaru named the jutsu he used most of his remaining chakra to execute. The ball of electricity appeared between his twin Kiba swords and flew towards Konoha ninja who wasn't able to see it. In the slow motion Kiri ninja watched as ball of energy struck the Hyūga's chest and it exploded, the man sailed in the air before crushing into a tree. Ranmaru's dōjutsu stopped working, but from the corner of his vision he saw another Konoha ninja attacking with his katana. The apprentice of Raiga closed his only eye and readied himself to be killed.

_Hiramekarei Kaihō!_

There was a crushing wet sound and Ranmaru turned his head to the enemy only to see red and white mass of organs and bones where Konoha ninja was. Above him stood Chōjūrō with unleashed Hiramekarei in the form of the giant battle hummer made of chakra. Chōjūrō watched his deed with unreadable expression on his face.

Someone jumped to his left and Ranmaru heard the commanding voice of Naruto.

"There is something wrong with him – poison, probably. Take him with you in the village of Tsuchigumo clan."

Ranmaru dropped to the ground unable to stand anymore.

"Here, take this generic antidote and gave him." Naruto threw a vial to Chōjūrō who started to pick up the unconscious body of Ranmaru. "It's not very powerful, but the only I have."

Chōjūrō jumped to the tree branch, Ranmaru's body on his back, "What are you going to do, Naruto?"

"I'll meet the second Konoha team and stop them," Naruto turned around from Chōjūrō and mumbled, "or at least give you time to retreat."

Chōjūrō wanted to protest, but closed his mouth and nodded. His eyes behind glasses showed respect to the blond boy. "We'll be waiting you in that village." He disappeared in the forest.

"Now I'll have some fun." Naruto said with a feeling of bored detachment as he watched the play of light and shadow on the forest floor. There was no time to prepare a trap anymore.

"Konoha is really persistent." Uzumaki's lips curved upwards, white teeth with larger then normal canines bared into one of his more charming smiles. Barely a leaf rustled in the canopy that surrounded him and the forest floor.

He inhaled. There was nothing better than the scent of adrenalin.

"What? Aren't you going answer me?"

He concentrated and the mist curl up from the ground, slowly spreading like a white shroud over the land, eclipsing the trees and their dark leaves. Naruto's smile broadened.

"You are very rude." He could not stop the slight inflection of humor in his voice as he gazed into the white masks. "And what the mighty ANBU wants from the lowly genin?"

The blond Swordsman and the masked ninjas stared at each other, the mist curling around their bodies like a lover.

Muted light glinted on the edges of shuriken as they cut through the mist in a silent symphony of death. Naruto was carried off his feet as the jagged edges sliced through his flesh, teetering backwards before disappearing in a whiff of smoke.

"A replacement technique."

Long practice kept their voice emotionless, stilted eyes resting on the much mutilated tree trunk. Their bodies were still taut like the string of a bow, unmoving as a statue, fine tuned senses searching for the barest trace of their prey in the chilling silence which hung over the glade.

"That's right, genius." The disembodied voice was sharply sarcastic.

Without warning the ground heaved, buckling like a living creature before erupting upwards in a flurry of dirt and stones. Naruto rose from the depths with the fluid grace of the predator closing in on his hapless prey before they had a chance to react.

He landed gracefully on the ground, carrying his trophy on Kubikiribōchō's tip. With a casual movement he flicked the massive sword sending the lifeless body flying across the clearing.

"You know, in Kiri, our teachers used to kill their students for such ungraceful footwork as yours." Naruto chuckled; for ANBU it was a most unpleasant sound. "Well, I suppose, it's never too late."

He lunged forward, trailing Kubikiribōchō behind him.

The ANBU circled him patiently, biding their time like hungry wolves, waiting for that elusive opening, throwing that occasional kunai or shuriken to test his defenses.

"Oh." He teased. "So you have a plan now!"

He moved in a well synchronized, unpredictable way deflecting the shuriken with practiced ease. His feet traced circles on the green forest floor and Kubikiribōchō twirled, swinging gracefully from his hands.

Suddenly the strange, mesmeric dance stopped and Naruto smiled. Teeth glinted cruelly in the muted sunlight. He was done playing cat and mouse.

He moved forward with frightening speed, his body blurring as he brought Kubikiribōchō crashing down on one of his assailants. The sheer momentum of the heavy sword was so much that it smashed through the kunai that the ninja had put up for self defense, ripping through his body like butter.

His partner rushed in to assist his ailing comrade. Naruto twirled, his foot colliding with the ANBU's gut and exhaled the concentrated burst of wind sending the man flying across the clearing and into a tree, ripping bits of bark and wood. The Kubikiribōchō that Naruto threw after the man, sliced him in two a moment later.

The sole remaining ANBU stood alone. Naruto could almost taste the doubt and fear that rolled off him in waves. He couldn't understand, couldn't comprehend how this young kid managed to defeat his teammates.

"Did I tell you that I'm one of the Seven Swordsmen?" Naruto did a Ram handseal.

"Die!" The ninja screamed launching himself at Naruto, his kunai aimed at blonde's heart.

Uzumaki's eyes widened as kunai entered his chest, but next moment he exploded in cloud of butterflies.

_Genjutsu_, flashed in ANBU's mind right before wind chakra enhanced kunai severed his spine from behind and moved deeper into his body.

"Konoha is truly pathetic if their elite forces are so weak." Naruto said to himself as he glanced around the clearing memorizing the scene, engraving this gruesome picture into his mind. He honestly thought that this battle will be more difficult. He even prepared to die, but alas, Konoha ANBU were bunch of weaklings.

Next minute was spent in sealing the bodies of Konoha ninja. The Hyūga was unfortunately branded with juinjutsu and his eyes burned upon his death. Naruto didn't care much about it, his eyes were glued to the seal on the forehead of the man, it was a fascinating piece of fuuinjutsu. Blonde promised himself to examine it later and learn as much as possible. All these ninja's corpses held many secrets just waiting to be unraveled.

XXX

"I think, we have a guest," Naruto said suddenly and Chōjūrō coughed loudly as he choked on the tea he was drinking.

The pair of young Swordsmen turned their heads and watched as a tall, thin young man with pale golden eyes and black hair that reaches to his shoulders entered the teashop. He was wearing a long, light blue kimono adorned with a small emblem of three bubbles, and a pair of black pants underneath, with an orange sash. The kimono hanged loose, exposing his chest.

"Is that..." Chōjūrō trailed off when he received a curt nod from Naruto. "It's Utakata. He sensed us, apparently."

Utakata came to the stop before their small table and observed the pair with keen eyes. Both Naruto and Chōjūrō felt his gaze uncomfortable, but after a minute, Utakata spoke, "Why did you come here?" His voice was light, but Naruto got the feeling that jinchuuriki of the Rokubi was prepared to annihilate them if he receive the wrong answer.

The boys shared a glance and Naruto spoke, "We are here to deliver a message to you from Godaime Mizukage, Utakata-san."

Utakata closed his eyes for a second and sat down on the free chair, "Godaime, huh? Yagura must be dead then." He paused thinking about this piece of information. "Well, I'm listening the message." Utakata said calmly. " And do tell me what happened in Kirigakure while I was absent."

It took two hours to explain everything to jinchuuriki of the Rokubi during which Naruto was leaving the shop couple of times to check on Ranmaru who was sleeping in the hotel room across the road. The generic antidote and first aid helped him to survive, but kekkei genkai shinobi was still weak and sickly.

"Amusing. You three must be really skilled ninja if you became members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Utakata said in bored voice after he listened their message. "What are your orders if I didn't return to Kirigakure with you?" The steel in the question was unmistakable and Chōjūrō shivered understanding that they have no chance against jinchuuriki.

"To return back, Utakata-san." The bespectacled Swordsman said quietly. Naruto nodded confirming his words.

"I'll tell you my decision tomorrow." Utakata stood up and left the boys alone.

He walked to Tsuchigumo clan compound thinking of the best way to deal with this problem, but deep down he already made a decision. He was a wanderer, true, but he was tired of running away from hunter-nin squads. He wished to return home where the cool salty air make you feel so much alive. His master Harusame died and now Yagura was dead too, there was no reason for him to continue his life as missing-nin.

But the freedom was addicting. The ability to guide one's own actions, intent and purpose was both unique in the Shinobi World, and a luxury of the highest order, especially for jinchuuriki. In truth, during his time spent away he'd grown far happier than he'd ever been in Kirigakure.

It was true freedom.

But freedom from what though? From his own home? From the land where he was born and raised? _From the land where he wished to die?_

Utakata's eyes gained a faraway look. There was only one way to gain freedom while living in the hidden village. He needed to became someone more then a simple shinobi, not a jinchuuriki-weapon either. Advisor to this new Mizukage maybe? He have power to accomplish it, in spades. And if Godaime and Ao would be against the idea of sharing their power, well, there would be new Mizukage and ANBU Commander then. He wasn't weaker then Yagura, after all. In couple of years he will gain full control over Rokubi and there wouldn't be many shinobi of his caliber in the world.

When Utakata reached the gates of the compound and met the gaze of young Hotaru who was seating on the grey boulder in the middle of the garden, he paused for a second, then stepped forward.

He needed to explain everything to her...

XXX

The three boys sat on the tatami in the small hotel room they rented.

Chōjūrō was cleaning Hiramekarei even if the sword was clean. He did it just to pass the time.

Ranmaru, who after a treatment and good sleep didn't look like someone who will die any moment, was glaring at Naruto. His purple eye periodically changed it's color to red, showing that the boy was agitated.

While Naruto was calmly reading the scroll, from time to time writing something on it. This scroll was written by his late mother and explained the basic concepts about space-time and the ninjutsu she started to develop, but didn't have the chance to complete.

This jutsu had been explained as 'traversing the sine wave'. Kushina wrote that space-time is one big, never ending sine wave. You had peaks, you had valleys, and you had everything in between. She wanted to create ninjutsu specifically meant to traverse that sine wave, shifting from one point on that wave to another by tightening the wave itself, or in other words, increasing the frequency. If the valleys and peaks were closer together, that is to say, if the frequency was higher, you could get from one point to another far more easily than if the waves were far apart.

The concept was completely different from _Hiraishin no Jutsu_, where the user just made a hole in space-time, and from _Shunshin no Jutsu_, where the user just molded, tightened and released his chakra so his body can move faster the normal.

If you use Kushina's jutsu with enough focus and good chakra control, you'll have a definite idea of where exactly on that wave you are standing, and from that point you can manipulate the wave and then easily shift to another point. In a way, it was like you are traveling in a rift between space-time.

It was really complicated and Naruto wasn't sure if he understood everything right. After some time, he put the scroll away. There was no chance he could complete this jutsu if he don't understand how it worked in the first place. Maybe, later...

He turned his eyes to Ranmaru, but ignored the kid. He didn't want to speak with brat right now.

Naruto entertained the thought of practicing _Kanashibari no Jutsu_ with his clones, but purged the thought after a minute. He already made a mistake of training during the mission and that led to his fight with ANBU when he had only half of his chakra. It was incredibly stupid for him and as Naruto thought about it, he was just lucky it were Konoha ANBU, for if it were Kiri ANBU he would be dead by now... or maybe he wouldn't... It was difficult to measure the level of one's own power.

To measure one's own capacity.

"You want something to say, Ranmaru?" Naruto asked after he decided that he really have nothing to do, so why not to speak with the kid who was starting at him for an hour already.

"To you?" Raiga's apprentice scowled, "No."

Naruto cocked his head to the side, "Then why are you staring at me? I'm not swinging that way, you know." Smirked appeared on his face.

Chōjūrō stopped cleaning his sword and looked at his teammates waiting for rather entertaining scene.

Ranmaru blinked owlishly, then his cheeks turned red, "I'm not fag, you hear me, deep shit?!" He yelled and his kekkei genkai dōjutsu turned completely red showing that brat was pissed.

Naruto's chakra started to strangely fluctuate. He concentrated and _twisted_ it, dispelling the genjutsu even before he was caught in one. This genjutsu wasn't really subtle, Uzumaki mused.

Next moment idea struck Naruto, "That aside... why don't we have a little training session?"

Chōjūrō raised an eyebrow, "Um, I don't think it's a good idea, Naruto. We are still in Fire Country and Konoha might find..." His speech was interrupted by Naruto. "Don't worry, Chōjūrō. I'm thinking about special training." Golden haired boy turned to Ranmaru, "How about you cast your genjutsu using your funny eye on us and we try to break it?"

"His genjutsu can break our minds." Chōjūrō said weakly, but no one cared.

Ranmaru's face morphed into one of the sadist. The kid was glowing with dark joy as he chuckled darkly, "Oh, I'll make you cry..."

"Good, I and Chōjūrō will change after each time you cast genjutsu." Naruto said, "Chōjūrō you go first..."

"Wha-" But the wielder of Hiramekarei already made an eye contact with Ranmaru and found himself in one of the boy's genjutsu.

This 'game' lasted for two hours and by the end of it, Naruto was breathing heavily while Chōjūrō was whimpering on the floor. Ranmaru looked smug, even if winded, the genjutsu took chakra, after all.

Uzumaki was able to block most of Ranmaru's genjutsu even before he was trapped and release some others, but there were still some that were too subtle. _It wasn't so bad_, Naruto thought, _and the pain was worth it in the end_._With enough practice, no genjutsu will affect me._

"When we return to Kiri I want a pure no-chakra kenjutsu session with you two." Chōjūrō said suddenly, holding his head in his hands, "Both of you are terrible with your swords. Naruto, especially. I'll teach you two some finer points of kenjutsu." There was an unmistakable threat in the bespectacled ninja's words.

Naruto smiled, "Good. And I hope, Ranmaru will create more powerful genjutsu with his kekkei genkai."

"Damn right I'll do, bitches."

They spent the evening arguing about the best food and discussing the best techniques to torture the enemy...

XXX

Whether it was due to the powers of the Shodai Hokage, or perhaps another Senju in the long-forgotten past who had also possessed the notorious _Mokuton_, but the trees in this part of the Fire Country were different. Some would say that they were sentient, aware of the coming and goings of those around them. The villages and towns in the area didn't seem to think so and made their living in the lumber industry. The wood here was highly prized, very sturdy and in high-demand in all parts of the world. Initially, there had been some concern that sacred trees of the Senjuwould all disappear. Early on, though, the lumberjacks had discovered that the stumps of the trees they had fell would relatively quickly regenerate and within the span of a few years another tree would have taken its place, as tall as any of its brethren. It made the lumber industry extremely profitable, cutting down on costs, and they used the rivers in the area to transport the lumber to other parts of the Fire Country.

Given the mystique of the area held by much of the common populace, the region was relatively quiet. War had not touched the land there since the time of the warring clans. Any hostilities between Kumo and Konoha had taken place in the bordering countries between them. This had not endeared the Great Villages to the populations in those areas, but some would argue that it was a worthwhile sacrifice. As the area was relatively peaceful, there wasn't actually a large shinobi presence. There were only ANBU trainees who did a border patrol missions and occasional teams of ninja who just passed through.

ANBU Team Gamma jumped to the clearing where the battle took place a day or two ago, there were no bodies, but it was clear from the spitted blood and destroyed scenery.

"It's here," murmured Snake, his voice barely audible. "What do you see?"

Boar grumbled something unintelligible and frowned underneath his mask, straining byakugan eyes to the maximum, taking in everything at one time. "The six ninja died here." He said after a moment. "Two teammates of the chuunin we found dead and the full team of ANBU trainees."

He deactivated his dōjutsu and closed the eyes allowing the sounds of the world around him to drift into his ears. He could hear birds chirp, the wind rustling leaves, the faint cries of distant animals and the chirp and buzz of insects. "There were three enemies. All lighter then a normal grown up men."

Snake turned his masked face to Lizard.

"He is right, these three were children." Lizard answered the silent question quietly. "They moved in the direction of the village of Tsuchigumo clan."

"Move out!" Snake ordered and the team of ANBU disappeared in the forest.

XXX

Standing on the outskirts of the Tsuchigumo village with his three companions, Utakata remembered suddenly what it was like to grew up in the Bloody Mist in the darkest times. These kids caught only the tail end of the bloody era. They know only small portion of the pain people of Water Country felt. Family and friends were lost to internecine warfare between Mizukage, rivaling clans and random shinobi in a conflict spanned around the whole country. Alliances were fleeting, not worth the paper they set down upon, lasting only as long as the next advantage and ending inevitably in betrayal...

He remembered his dead family, the bitter desire to revenge. The pure hopelessness of life where peace seems but a myth, a pleasant lie or daydream made up so as lend comfort to the ill and the dying. To be a jinchuuriki he was taught by Harusame is to divest oneself of petty hatreds and grievances. Jinchuuriki mustn't feel anything because it will kill their purpose.

In this way Utakata, the jinchuuriki of the Rokubi, was molded.

In past he believed that to reach the happiness one must let go of their emotions. Both jinchuuriki and shinobi mustn't know love and hatred. Base feelings must be tempered or cut away.

For a long time he championed only logic.

But now he had tasted the freedom. Tasted the feelings.

He is planning to bring his freedom with him to the dark shores of Kirigakure no Sato.

"Alright, kids. Stand closer to me." When they did, he smiled, "We will travel this way..." The blew a big bubble.

The flying hight above the ground in the bubble was novel experience to three twelve years old ninja...

XXX

The Konoha council meeting was understandably tense. And when it wasn't? The Sandaime and his advisors Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura sat at a table before an assembly of clan heads, ANBU captains and jounin. The clan heads were seated in groups according to personal and political ties within the auditorium. The ANBU and jounin were at the back or stood along the walls grouped by profession. No one was sure what to say for a second as the Raikage's proposition was read to them by the Hokage.

"Disgraceful..." Aburame Shibi summed up his thoughts.

"To ask something like this! Are they mocking us?" Inuzuka Tsume groused from her chair. It was a sentiment shared by several of the shinobi sitting in the room.

"Hokage-sama," Nara Shikaku spoke up, "What is the response of other hidden villages to this proposition?"

The Sandaime sighed, "The Iwagakure and Kirigakure agreed. I believe, many smaller villages would follow them."

Koharu chimed in, "But it is our turn to host Chuunin Exams next month. We will lose prestige if this exam will be held on 'neutral ground' as proposed by Raikage."

"We mustn't forget the real purpose of the Chuunin Exams though, it's a substitution of war, and while it pains me, Raikage is right." Homura paused for second, "Since the end of the First Shinobi War there wasn't a single time when all five Great Hidden Villages were participating in one Chuunin Exams." He informed assembled people.

Sarutobi nodded, "True. We never send our ninja when the Exams are held in Kiri, Kumo or Iwa, they didn't send their representatives to us either. Basically, the Great Hidden Villages are comparing their strength to the smaller villages but not those with the same standing and we are losing the purpose of the Chuunin Exams."

Danzō, normally silent in the corner of the room spoke, "Raikage wants to show his power to the world, he believes that his genin are the best."

"I see," said Akimichi Chōza, "He doesn't believe us not to cheat during Exams to make our genin look better."

"But can we believe to samurai of the Iron Country where Raikage is proposing to hold next Chuunin Exams?" Yamanaka Inoichi questioned. "They might be plotting to kill our best genin..."

Homura, Koharu and even Danzō smiled a little hearing this.

Sarutobi hummed and said, "You don't know the samurai of Iron Country, Inoichi. They will never do something so... _low_. But to erase any fears, Raikage asked every Great Hidden Village to send their proctors and guards as addition to samurai."

"The security barriers teams will be needed too," Shikaku deduced. He turned his sharp dark eyes to regard the Hokage. "I think, to preserve our status, we must participate in these Chuunin Exams."

"Will we just accept this proposition? Why don't they send their teams to us?" Tsume fumed angrily. Hiashi nodded his head, showing that he agree with Inuzuka.

There were murmurs from the jounin at the back before Homura silenced them with his words, "We cannot afford to look weak at time like this. It could lead to a war."

"I agree but we must send our representatives to Iron Country as soon as possible and make sure to participate in designing of all rounds of examination." Chōza said quietly, "We all know that Chuunin Exams might turn into a bloodbath."

Inoichi continued his friend's thoughts to their logical conclusion, "We mustn't forget that it's our children who will participate."

Danzō and the Hokage shared a look. Both elderly shinobi didn't like what their village was turning into. Weak and soft.

The meeting ended with Konoha resolved to participate in the biggest Chuunin Exams in history where all Great Hidden Village will be present.


End file.
